Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (43 page)

“I had to make her do that or she would have just starved herself to death. I’ve never known a vampire who was able to resist the hunger for blood without being prepared for it like those turned in Marek’s coven. She was probably starving in that room for almost half a day, too weak to move, and she still didn’t want to harm anyone.

“While she needed a little extra blood from me to keep her fangs in check, Nicola says that those newly changed always do. Still, it’s been surprising and have you ever known a vampire as young as fifteen?”

“Sounds like you’re in love with this Sami as well,” Vivian chuckled.

Repulsed by the idea as he considered what she might mean, Nick said, “I would hardly be interested in a little girl, Vivian. That’s disgusting.”

Barking a quick laugh, the woman chided him, “I didn’t mean it like that, you dummy. I mean that you sound like a proud parent telling of his daughter’s first steps. You’ve only had her with you for a couple days and you are attached to her whole heartedly.”

“Hmmph,” he grunted more like a sigh. “Yeah, there is just something about her that everyone likes. She seems so sweet and innocent, though I have a feeling that Sami hasn’t truly shown how much of a young teenager she truly is. This girl is going to be trouble for sure,” the man finished with a little laugh thinking Vivian was probably correct. He did feel that protective love and adoration of a father for his child.

“All girls are trouble to one extent or another, Nicholas. You knew that already, if only because you know me,” his friend replied with a giggle.

“Yes, you would think I would have learned just from you, wouldn’t you?” he teased her back.

“So it sounds like your apartment is getting pretty crowded.”

“You have no idea, though Logan and Kate are out supposedly looking into getting jobs, which might at least get them out of the apartment. If they don’t leave soon, I may have to move,” he chuckled.

“Moving around is nothing new to us, Nicholas,” the woman countered.

“True again, it’s a shame that the humans can’t know of us and the others. There would be scientists cutting us open to find the secret of our longevity and armies trying to kill the rest,” he finished with a sigh.

“Humans might come to a point where they could learn to live with the others, but I fear our fate should we go into the open as well,” Vivian agreed. “Movies, television and books might open peoples’ minds to a point, but in the end humans don’t deal well with not being at the top of the food chain. It is still best to do what we can to hide vampires and werewolves from them.”

Nick nodded and shortly after, the man ended the call with his former mentor before returning to the duties of the day.

Chapter 24- A Short Walk From Campus

When the city suddenly became relatively quiet as the patrols only came across a few rogue vampires, Nick realized how cynical he had become. Instead of enjoying the lull in strange incidents around the city, the voran kept asking
himself whether it was simply the quiet before the storm.

The reapers had seemed to disappear, though they might simply be working farther to the north or moved outside of the city. Whether they had come to whittle away at the vampire population after figuring out that there had been activity on a large scale thanks to Cyrus, or if they had been simply moving through as some of the more nomadic vampires might do to avoid wearing out their welcome; he just didn’t have enough information to know.

With the destruction of the large nest, disappearances had gone down keeping such news from the media, though the internet and news stations still commented on the dozens from the past few months. The fire that had killed dozens, according to the news led by police with misinformation, seemed to be forgotten by the media, though the families affected would certainly remember and be curious how their loved ones had come to be there in the first place. Those lost with Sami were also slowly revealed.

Nick had worked with a small group he knew. The detectives and FBI agents he knew had profiled the victims. Grouping those who might be likely to be in the clubs, those were pulled back into the store and with a little bit of music equipment to sacrifice, the building was set on fire. It was contained to the first two floors leaving almost a dozen victims purportedly killed in an illegal rave. The rest had been set adrift in the sewers with the hopes that eventually they would be found to eventually give their loved ones the peace of knowing they had died, though not how.

It had been a morbid duty and the voran had enlisted Marek’s help to retrieve the bodies. The abilities of the voran and vampires were necessary short of bringing in others with special gear that might be noticed sooner.

One of the worries of working the site was that they might be discovered by the reapers if they were still watching the nest for potential strays returning home. They never appeared anymore than any other strays. The team retrieved the bodies, set the evidence and set fire to the building in the middle of the night.

Fire trucks were called preventing any other buildings from being involved; but not before the ‘rave room’ was sufficiently beyond redemption. Even for forensics, it would be difficult to pick out the truth of the situation.

In contrast to the city’s night life, Nick’s home had become quite chaotic, though it was just from adjusting to so many people in one little area. Luckily, the werewolves tended to be awake by day and able to go about their lives, including having Logan and Kate get the jobs they had hoped to get.

There was a clinic in need of doctors and though he had left early before his years of practice in a hospital were complete, they were desperate enough to take him in based on what he had accomplished up to that point. He would be a probationary doctor in a way, but it was a paying position. While his salary wasn’t as large as a doctor in a large hospital, it was a way back into the field he still loved. It was also enough to afford an apartment for he and Kate.

With little money and coming from being basically homeless, Logan retrieved his bed from the second werewolf house. Eric had given permission to do so though technically it was pack property even if Logan had been using it for years. Nick supposed that it was just another attempt of the pack leader to instill goodwill between them, and after his return to tend their wounds after the last full moon he owed the doctor.

The only problem for Nick was that with Logan gone, it was just him and the women in his life. With the room emptied of the werewolves, Nicola decided to move her wardrobe and other acquired personal items to his apartment. She didn’t usurp the whole closet, but as Sami wound up with her own room, the girl was still sharing her closet with Nicola. The two vampires didn’t seem to care and, in fact, the younger girl was often seen wearing something that she had looted from the closet. Nicola never became mad and appeared to enjoy having Sami around like a little sister. Her own blood siblings had passed away, she was fairly certain, since the vampire had tried to communicate by letter for years never telling them of her turning.

As everything seemed to settle down after the moves, Nick thought maybe his fears were unfounded.

“I don’t know, Geni, shouldn’t we stay in tonight and study a bit for the exams?” Lena asked as the blond haired girl, dressed to party, pulled her from the suite of dorm rooms.

“Gah, if I don’t take a break from studying for one night, my brain is going to explode; and if you don’t come with me, they’ll explode all over you!” the blonde aimed her head towards her friend miming her brains exploding with her hands and a weak sound effect.

Lena had to laugh and understood the feeling. Only with the help of her friends had the girl finally caught up on the homework she had been behind on thanks to her time with the werewolves in February. Charlotte had been a big help, even if it had been a few years since she had been to college. Surprisingly, Sami was the biggest help on accounting homework as the younger girl simply read the book quickly catching onto the various concepts faster than either of the older girls.

“Maybe we should call Nicola and Charlotte. We could take Sami off their hands for some fun, if nothing else.”

Shaking her head vehemently, the blonde replied, “Oh no, not tonight, we can’t take a fifteen year old to the club I was planning on going to.”

“We aren’t twenty-one for a few more months either, Geni. Where can we go that she can’t?”

Holding up a pair of I.D. the girl said, “We can go anywhere we want, Margaret
Brumowitz.” She had read the name off the one with Lena’s picture on it. “I think you look more like a Maggie though.”

“Oh, yes, because a bouncer will think I am a... twenty-eight year old, Jewish woman, Geni,” she said pausing to read the birthday on the I.D. as she complained to her friend. “And who are you supposed to be?”

“Amber Davis, a twenty six year old from Evanston,” Geni stated. “You mustn’t corrupt innocent little me, you old lady.”

The blonde giggled as she dropped her fake I.D. into her clutch before passing Lena hers.

“If we get busted, I will never hear the end of this from my parents,” the dark haired girl sighed as she tucked it into the front pocket of her tight, blue jeans. With high heeled boots and a black blouse, Lena gave in to the other girl’s pressure. She wanted to have some fun as well before spending a weekend studying for the first of her exams.

The bar Geni wanted to go to wasn’t far and as they walked, Lena felt a little worried. While the strange disappearances had seemed to end all at once, perhaps from the nest being destroyed where Nick found Sami; there were still threats out there. Her voran radar could sense the unusual though, so she figured that she could keep them away from supernatural danger at the very least.

Once inside the bar, the two girls found a few dozen of their college friends partying to forget that they only had two and half days until exam time. Even though she knew that she shouldn’t drink, Lena found a beer in her hand. There had been those summer functions where she had snuck beer before, but her parents had always cut her off after a few sips. With no parents and Geni joining her, Lena soon found a few empty bottles on the bar beside her.

The music was rocking and the two girls danced, whether with each other or with one of the brave boys watching the college girls. Lena kept a watchful eye over Geni. Girl friends needed to protect each other, especially if they were getting drunk.

Someone introduced shots on a tray. They were small and tasted of peppermint. Since they didn’t seem that strong, Lena found that she had three glasses all tipped over soon enough. Her head was getting woozy, however, and the girl knew that she had had enough. She was probably already drunk, but the girl still had enough of a mind left to avoid getting wasted.

Seeing Geni’s collection of glasses, and the blonde being a little smaller than her; Lena leaned over and said, “Maybe we’d better head back. If we get too drunk, we’ll never be able to study for our final exams.”

“Maggie, you are such a killjoy, but I think you are right!” Geni declared with a raised finger and hand, as she began to sway and not with the music.

The two girls took a few minutes and drank a glass of coke while eating some of the pretzels on the bar hoping to absorb some of the alcohol so that they could make the trip back to the dorms. Lena felt like she had just missed becoming too drunk to walk and still had to assist Geni out the door.

Despite only a few blocks to walk, Lena’s stomach was starting to turn. “Oh, man, I don’t feel too good,” the brunette stated and quickly used a tie from wrist to pull her hair into a tail. “Hang on, Geni, I need to throw up.”

Turning into a gap between the buildings that was less an alley than a separation of stone structures, Lena threw up seeing the remains of the pretzels that had failed in their mission of settling her stomach and absorbing the alcohol. As she turned to look down the sidewalk, the path Geni had wobbled along to avoid seeing Lena’s being sick for fear that she would join her; the brunette noticed a man appearing to kiss her friend’s neck.

Through the bleariness of alcohol, Lena cried out in fear as her radar told her this wasn’t a normal man, but a vampire. “Hey, get away from her, you jerk!” she cried out sounding slurred to her ears.

The man had dark hair, was very thin and his skin was so pale that in the moonlight he appeared to glow white. His eyes turning away from the weakened blonde haired girl terrified Lena. They were black as night and not the vaguely gray sky over Chicago, but true darkness. No light reflected from those eyes. No white appeared at the edges. They were a darkness that tried to drain her will and called her to give in to the animal coming for her blood.

He was on her in a blink before Geni could even sag to the ground unconscious. Lena watched as her friend’s blood stained her dress from neck to breast and the stain continued to grow. His teeth were in the voran’s neck in turn stunning her for a moment.

Pulling back from the girl in shock, the creature tore her skin rather than withdrawing smoothly as a normal vampire would have. “What are you, pretty
pretty?” he asked with an accent that the stunned girl would have problems guessing even sober.

The creature didn’t wait for an answer as he greedily returned to the torn flesh of her neck. Her vision blurring in pain, Lena brought her hands up between them in self defense. They were pinned between the two when she desperately released the light of her aura blades with every ounce of her being.